The Amazing Snakeheads

Amphetamine Ballads (Domino)
16/20

With its golden, leathery snakeskin album art and a seditious provocation in its title, The Amazing Snakeheads’ debut is one that’s striking for signifiers of both unnatural beauty and repulsion before the music is even addressed. A Glaswegian rock-and-roll Western of unsettling violence and brooding menace, it is a fascinating record that leaves Crack both disturbed and impressed.

With a Jack The Ripper bass line and furious, snarling theatrics, I’m A Vampire opens this fearful collection; the scene is set for a grim journey as guided by The Amazing Snakeheads, a gritty account seemingly balancing fiction and autobiography. The more morbid constructs of Where Is My Knife? meanwhile, are twisted fairy tales of forceful conviction thanks to Barclay’s incensed delivery. If he isn’t the devil himself, then he’s a damn fine storyteller.

A compelling record that’s as immersive as it is intimidating, The Amazing Snakeheads bring their dimly-lit thematic alive with enough precision to stir up a fright in any cold and lonely town. These are the bastard children of Tom Waits, hungry for blood and grits, and in these 10 invigorating tracks they’ll leave you shaken.

– – – – – – – – – –

Words: James Balmont